11/18/2011

FBI working with NSA, CIA on cyber threats

The FBI must work more closely with the major US intelligence agencies in order to combat threats in cyberspace, its director said on Thursday, likening the government response to that against terrorism.

Director Robert Mueller said in a speech to San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club that the FBI had begun coordinating cases through task forces that included representatives of the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency, among others.

When a company is first attacked, he said, neither it nor enforcement can tell whether it was part of another government’s espionage effort–which would be handled by the US spy agencies–or the work of an organised crime group in Eastern Europe, or a breach by an American high school student.

“We have had to adjust our organising structure” to share information and hand off cases, Mr Mueller said. Likewise, the overall fight is dependent on intelligence gathered domestically under greater legal restrictions and abroad, where the NSA and CIA garner much more.

Mr Mueller repeated his previous calls for law enforcement to have easier access to internet communications over social networks that may be encrypted and not stored. Google and other big technology companies, on the other hand, have joined with civil liberties advocates in asking that warrants be required for digitally stored emails and other content.

Hacking is now the FBI’s third priority, after terrorism and espionage, and he said the agency needs intelligence to learn about impending crimes rather than just responding afterward.

Because the targets and techniques change so rapidly, Mr Mueller said, “It is going to be a huge challenge in the years to come.”